Saturday afternoon. Chillin’ out on the rooftop, as per usual. The vibe is lit. There’s some other ladies hanging out and no Passport Bros. The playlist is pretty good too. Good writing vibes.

What did I do today? I did a round of yoga on the rooftop right under the sun. Then I showered, meditated, wrote another throwaway story, and took a nap. Woke up again, went to the coffee stand, and decided I should probably try to do something cool while I’m still here.

I finally booked myself a tour. It’s a Ghost Tour of Bangkok. Love a good Ghost Tour! Should be a good time. Then I can say I actually did something while I was in Bangkok besides eat copious amounts of delicious food and do yoga by the pool. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course.

The nice thing about writing a pile of throwaway garbage is that it clears the way for the bigger, more important projects to come out. I have a better concept for this blog now, as well as a new book. It’s the same book I’ve been trying to write forever, but I finally figured out how to fuse all of it together. I guess the problem is that I just hadn’t lived long enough or had enough crazy experiences. Now I’ve had so many crazy experiences, it’s almost hard to keep track of them all.

So… nice, big short story collection? Short stories were always the preferred format on my site. People like to read them on their phone before bed. So it must be formatted in that same style, but this more organized and with an actual point.

Additionally, I’ve also made my peace with South Dakota, so now I see how it snakes its way through the narrative in a more interesting way than I initially thought. I just couldn’t see it while I was living there because I was too caught up with the townie drama. Now I’m free of that, so I can “see the forest from the trees” as they say.

Well, at least I collected a lot of great content while I was there. So many scandals, so much corruption. I am not at all surprised by what I’m seeing in the news now, let’s put it that way. I’ve been living in MAGAland for the last 15 years. It’s not a great place.

Now I am far, far away from there, living my life free of all that toxic garbage. I basically just live in my elephant pants now. I carry my iced coffee and elephant yoga mat around everywhere in my tacky touristy Thailand elephant tote bag filled with notebooks, pens, snacks, water, and fresh fruit juices. I’m totally vibing, ya’ll. Hashtag living my best life.

Love Thailand, but I’m definitely feeling a strong pull towards Bali. I feel like there’s a story there. I hope it’s like the White Lotus. Dubai was definitely the most White Lotus-y place so far. The OG Paradise Oasis Mirage in the Desert. Every day I just sit here and think to myself, “Wow, what was that?”

Why am I like this? Because I read things like the 1001 Arabian Nights, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, and Shakespeare as a literal child. I have a very active imagination now as a result. If only I could use it to organize the massive piles of crap I put out into the world.

It’s just refreshing to focus on stories about interesting things and people in the world instead of constantly reliving my own trauma for other people’s entertainment. Not fun! I think we can do better than that!

So I guess I will just continue entertaining myself with whatever this weird story is until the actual story comes out. In the meantime, investigate Bali.

Let’s bring my Pinterest board to life while we still have time!

Looking for cheap places in Bali now. There are so many options. I will easily be able to balance out the absurd cost of real estate on this trip to Thailand. We’ll see how the cost of things actually is once I’m on the ground.

I try not to stress too much about finances. I just take the bull by the horns. It’s easier for me to approach it that way. The only way for me to make all of this work is to write it all down by hand, calculate it out, and do tons of research in advance. Somehow, the dice keeps rolling in my favor.

Alright, should I save money and stay in on Saturday night, or should I go out and meet all the Passport Bros lurking in da club? Hmm… well, I’ve spent all this money on this very lovely apartment, and I have leftover Greek food in the fridge, and I’m kinda into writing this story right now, so I think I’ll skip the trip to the red light district tonight, thanks.

For now, I am content to look out over the city of Bangkok as the sun sets, somehow finding peace within the mess that is my ridiculous life.

Off to start trip planning now. Let’s see how this one goes…